formal paper2 draft3

Dear Liza,

In all the time I have known you, I’ve always thought of you as a second mother and you were the one with the more drastic views in life. You have always told your own children and I, that life should be free and that we need to find our own happiness because we live in a society where it is dangerous to be different. I have always taken to heart all the teachings that my parents, you and other important people in my life have imparted onto me, but at the same time as I grew up I learned to question these teachings and see if I believe them the same way and with the help of your son we decided that we didn’t think that all the teachings were right. We believe that society, as a whole would excel if we could get rid of the far extremes of liberal and conservative. From our reasoning if we got rid of the extremes, what we are then left with are: open-minded conservatives who can compromise or at least can understand the reasons for some kind of change, and liberals who have more pride in their nation and get the drive to want to create change in the ways that they need to be. I know I’m biased from the way I grew up and I’ll always tend to agree with liberals but I think society would be able to move forward if we stop bickering between two separate political powers fighting just because it makes them look good, instead of fighting for the people they represent.

The two sides on paper look like they keep each other in balance, but in reality all the political powers do is bicker and try to take the opponent down with slander and yellow journalism. The conservatives take the side of the individual, pumps them full of information that takes most of its leads from the bible. The liberals are all about the community and making it a better place for everyone rather than yourself.

Conservatives, stand of the side of the individual giving them more rights and if they’re the same as the mass population than all the more power to them. Many conservatives believe that gay marriage, abortion, and gun control should be illegal. I think that they come to these conclusions because they feel scared that someone is trying to take away something they hold dear such as specific laws or laws from their religion. They tend to make a bigger fit about whatever the issue is and that seems like it can be very effective because they make people see their side more and more, but the downfall of the conservative way of thinking is, they think in terms of personal gain and religion which makes they’re decisions to be extreme because all through out history when someone’s personal and/or religious views are challenged (even in a discussion setting), people tend to over-react and act defensively. “We support the traditional definition of “marriage” as the legal union of one man and one woman, and we believe that federal judges and bureaucrats should not force states to recognize other living arrangements as marriages. We do not believe sexual preference should be given special legal protection or standing in law” (Republican Platform adopted at GOP National Convention Aug 12, 2000). They seem to take the side of choosing to take away the rights of someone that doesn’t quite fit into the cookie cutter version of people that the conservative’s like to project to the general public.

On the complete other side the liberals, side with that of society. They try to make things better for all of society making everything better not just the betterment of a small group of people. “We support the right of all families to have equal respect, responsibilities, and protections under the law. We support marriage equality and support the movement to secure equal treatment under law for same-sex couples. We also support the freedom of churches and religious entities to decide how to administer marriage as a religious sacrament without government interference”(2012 Democratic Party Platform Sep 4, 2012). Unfortunately their fatal flaw is that they don’t make as big of a deal as the conservatives do because they don’t feel like their beliefs are being attacked thus making them not feel defensively and people who are being defensive are much more prone to lash out, attack, and fight because they feel like there is no way out of a situation without attacking.

We as humans want to fight; we want contests to see who is right or better, its evident in every society, even in animals. We want to outshine the others and be noticed as an alpha. For a better, more efficient society we need to stop the fighting (at least when it comes to important subjects like political gain and the economy), so we as a culture can compromise, agree and get on with other issues instead of fighting and attacking because a view on something is different.

Liza, I thought of you when I started thinking of this and how it could help you in the future. In my mind we can achieve this by talking to the people around us and spread the knowledge of what could be in society, instead of all of this fighting.

With good intentions,

Eli Sierra-Trustman

Works Cited

"Democratic Party in 2012 Democratic Party Platform." 2012 Democratic Party Platform Adopted by Democratic National Convention. N.p., 8 Sept. 2012. Web. 26 May 2013.

"Republican Party in 2000 Republican Party Platform." 2000 Republican Party Platform. N.p., 29 Sept. 2012. Web. 26 May 2013.

formal paper2 draft2

Dear Liza,

In all the time I have known you, I’ve always thought of you as a second mother and you were the one with the more drastic views in life. You have always told your own children and I, that life should be free and that we need to find our own happiness because we live in a society where it is dangerous to be different. I have always taken to heart all the teachings that my parents, you and other important people in my life have imparted onto me, but at the same time as I grew up I learned to question these teachings and see if I believe them the same way and with the help of your son we decided that we didn’t think that all the teachings were right. We believe that society, as a whole would excel if we could get rid of the far extremes of liberal and conservative. From our reasoning if we got rid of the extremes, what we are then left with are: open-minded conservatives who can compromise or at least can understand the reasons for some kind of change, and liberals who have more pride in their nation and get the drive to want to create change in the ways that they need to be. I know I’m biased from the way I grew up and I’ll always tend to agree with liberals but I think society would be able to move forward if we stop bickering between two separate political powers fighting just because it makes them look good, instead of fighting for the people they represent.

The two sides on paper look like they keep each other in balance, but in reality all the political powers do is bicker and try to take the opponent down with slander and yellow journalism. The conservatives take the side of the individual, pumps them full of information that takes most of its leads from the bible. The liberals are all about the community and making it a better place for everyone rather than yourself.

Conservatives, stand of the side of the individual giving them more rights and if they’re the same as the mass population than all the more power to them. Many conservatives believe that gay marriage, abortion, and gun control should be illegal. I think that they come to these conclusions because they feel scared that someone is trying to take away something they hold dear such as specific laws or laws from their religion. They tend to make a bigger fit about whatever the issue is and that seems like it can be very effective because they make people see their side more and more, but the downfall of the conservative way of thinking is, they think in terms of personal gain and religion which makes they’re decisions to be extreme because all through out history when someone’s personal and/or religious views are challenged (even in a discussion setting), people tend to over-react and act defensively.

We as humans want to fight; we want contests to see who is right or better, its evident in every society, even in animals. We want to outshine the others and be noticed as an alpha. For a better, more efficient society we need to stop the fighting (at least when it comes to important subjects like political gain and the economy), so we as a culture can compromise, agree and get on with other issues instead of fighting and attacking because a view on something is different.

formal paper 2 draft1

Dear Liza,

In all the time I have known you, I’ve always thought of you as a second mother and you were the one with the more drastic views in life. You have always told your own children and I, that life should be free and that we need to find our own happiness because we live in a society where it is dangerous to be different. I have always taken to heart all the teachings that my parents, you and other important people in my life have imparted onto me, but at the same time as I grew up I learned to question these teachings and see if I believe them the same way and with the help of your son we decided that we didn’t think that all the teachings were right. We believe that society, as a whole would excel if we could get rid of the far extremes of liberal and conservative. From my reasoning if we got rid of the extremes, we are then left with open-minded conservatives who can compromise or at least can understand the reasons for some kind of change, and liberals who have more pride in their nation and get the drive to want to create change in the ways that they need to be. I know I’m biased from the way I grew up and I’ll always tend to agree with liberals but I think society would be able to move forward if we stop bickering between two separate political powers fighting just because it makes them look good, instead of fighting for the people they represent. 

RA: Killer Culture

The article Killer Culture written by David Kupelian shows us the changes in life and culture from the 1950’s to now. Kupelian states that we are losing our morals and that we are a society comparable to the biblical “Sodom & Gomorrah”, following our passions and feelings to feel free. Our freedom allows us to express ourselves even if it doesn’t quite fit in with the ideas of what a man or woman is to the older generation. Men growing their hair long, wearing jewelry, or just being gay. Women doing “Man’s work”, being independent, being able to think for herself, and not just conforming to being a being of less importance than their husbands. Kupelian not only agrees with what was the normal life style of the 1950’s but also states that he believes that we should go back to that way of thinking making life distinctly black and white with no gray middle ground, by creating a subculture that, celebrates the distinct gender and color roles in society.

            Kupelian show us that we as a culture are destroying our morals by following our lowest primal pleasures. We want to be entertained, we want our own identity to distinguish ourselves from others, and we want the new. We want to be able to do whatever we want and to do it whenever we want. We as a culture would be perfectly happy to do nothing and follow the fleeting feeling of pleasure. I agree that we are following our primal instincts to find pleasure but I don’t think we are destroying our morals we are trying to abide by whatever schema is set in front of us, and we follow it to fit in. In Kupelian’s case his schema doesn’t match what his schema, which allows him to think that what we are doing is wrong or unmoral.

            We all have this kind of feeling that someone else’s schema is wrong and we feel that because the schemas of our lives are drastically different from someone else’s. Most of Americans have at one point or another thought to them that the Middle East is so oppressive and malicious for whatever they are doing, but they would say the same thing about us because of the different schemas. Kupelian may think that we are unmoral and that our culture should change back to the schemas of the 1950’s but I think that as a culture we are doing just fine.

RR: Under the Sign of Mickey Mouse & Co.

1. Gatlin identifies that the qualities, values, and attitudes that shape American society is that we are trying to reach a feeling of: Freedom, wealth, comfort, innocence, power, and the state of mind of a youth. It’s a good list but I would add ruthlessness because in our society we are ready to backstab anyone as long as it helps ourselves.
2. Gatlin tells us that the American way of life is taking over the identities of cultures that maybe smaller or different from itself. It does this by bombarding every part of your life with little hints to whatever the American’s are liking, doing, acting, appreciating, or obsessing over. What are lost though are our heritage and our pride as a culture.
3. Gatlin suggests that American culture is spongy and promiscuous because we take different parts of other cultures, combine and fuse them, and then add it to the rest of the hodgepodge of traditions, fads, and lifestyles we call the American culture. We are also a bottom-up society because we control our representatives not the other way around.
4. The English language (American English) is most simplified of the common languages and is mostly used for business because of it. It’s a common language because of how much it is used in business. When a culture needs business they use this language and therefore have to teach it in schools and when its taught students want to have some kind of self identity so they go for some new culture than the one they grew up in and then the American culture gets integrated into the other culture though the shear force of how many people identify with it.
5. My interpretation of what Gatlin thought of American culture and what it’s doing to the rest of the world is that the American culture as a whole is a drug for the rest of the world. Gatlin talks about how sad it is that American culture is corrupting isolated tribes of people, and that we are for pleasure. Our top export is entertainment and it corrupts the other cultures because we look like we’re having fun or being free.
6. I think that very traditional cultures would reject American culture openly and still have some who are part of it solely out of rebellion and pressure.
7. I would think that Kupelian would agree with Gatlins idea that we are destroying traditional cultures but I think that Kupelian would want to change the other cultures but to his ideal American society of the 1950’s.
8. In our popular culture we have a very eclectic taste in music, because we have so many different cultures that we integrate (d) in our culture, which makes defining what “American style” is. The genre of music that can be the closest to being called “American style”, what we so aptly call “pop music”. It ranges from any kind of music so the changes and fusions are infinite. The ever-changing styles of “pop music” is perfect for allowing any kind of music into itself the same way “American culture” does with other culture.

RR: Killer Culture

RR: Killer Culture

While reading the article Killer Culture by David Kupelian all I felt was anger and frustration. My entire childhood my parents and other important figures in my life have all raised me to believe that everyone is beautiful and that you should be able to express yourself in any way you want. Kupelian however believes that society should follow the 1950’s ideal of the manly man and women can vote but not think.

Kupelian comes from a generation where White Judeo-Christian males ruled, and by being one misses the power that it would entitle him to. In the 1950’s white men ruled but everyone else was prosecuted and shunned. Women in general in the 19950’s were depressed because they had no say in their life and that the unmarried women in that society were actually happier, because they had what control they could get. “On the growing number of women that were getting regular psychiatric help, the married ones were reported unhappy and unsatisfied, the unmarried ones were suffering from anxiety and depression”(Pg. 32 Lamb). As women decided that they were over being less than, they changed and allowed much more freedom of who you are and what you could be.

Be who you are, do what you feel is right and express yourself in any way you feel is right. This is what every important figure in my life has told me. I believe this with my whole being. When Kupelian compared our society to the biblical cities of sin Sodom and Gomorrah. “Drunken men with multiple piercings and bright red robes, one loose woman under each arm, cavorting in orgastic revelry against a background of annoying, mosquito-like music?”(pg. 55 Kupelian). I wasn’t quite sure whither to laugh or to get angry. The notion that we are “sinners” is that we are not following the exact ideals of a past generation. Kupelian also states that to go back to his ideal society we would have to start a subculture. He is completely right that to go back he would have to start a subculture. My reaction to this was that he wants to take away freedoms and make being who you are a bad thing and this really made me think he was trying to create another neo-Nazi, skinhead culture.

Kupelian may think we are headed down a bad road and that we should head back and stay at the spot where his people were in charge, but I think that we are headed in a better direction by letting people express themselves and can think for ourselves to make informed decisions about what ever we want.

Works Cited

Kupelian, David. "Killer Culture." Rereading America: Cultural Contexts for Critical Thinking and Writing. By Gary Colombo, Robert Cullen, and Bonnie Lisle. Boston: Bedford of St. Martin's, 1992. N. pag. Print.

Lamb, Venessa Martins. "The 1950’s and 1960’s and the American Woman: The Transition from the “housewife” to the Feminist." Dumas (2011): n. pag. Dumas. Web. 4 May 2013. <http://dumas.ccsd.cnrs.fr/docs/00/68/08/21/PDF/V_Martins_Lamb_-_Civi_2011.pdf>.

RA perspolis

The Book Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi demonstrates the past of Iran. She shows us her past though a graphic novel that sheds light on the fairly recent wars and all the troubles that have befallen the Iranian people.  This graphic novel starts off with the assumption that you have a bit of knowledge on the subject. Showing her own past experiences in a graphic novel shows how she went from being a little kid not understanding how to know what to believe and what to know to a rebellious person who wanted to take a stand for herself and her people.

In the USA we have the idea that Iran is tied to terrorists, oppression, money and oil. This book gives us a look at it from the other side and gives us a new way to look at the Iranian Revolution. She demonstrates a first hand view in events that transpired in the Iranian revolution, by giving stories from her own past she can give us a true look at the sufferings of the people in Iran and what transpired to how it is today. By showing the stories in a graphic novel she allows us to see not only the emotional but also physical abuse that the Iranian people had to face because of Iraq, their government and ours. She gives us stories that her peers and community around her told her. “You remember the day they pulled out my nails” (50). By showing us shocking and disturbing facts that would give us strong reactions I believe is Satrapi’s hope with this book, by doing that it makes us want to change it and will make a difference.

She writes her books in a way that it is easy to follow and understand the pain and suffering. By showing the illustrations it can give us a visual component to an event. It makes it easier to express the events that transpired and gives us one more way for our brains to absorb the information and keep it in out active minds.

RR#1 Persepolis

I found that in the book Persepolis written by Marjane Satrapi that I could relate to the main character. I found that the idea of her wanting to be a prophet to help those in need (at least the ones that she could see and be around) “I wanted to be a prophet… because my Grandmother’s knees always ached”(Satrapi pg. 6). I felt that very same thing when I was around my family and others that I was close to were in pain or were suffering; like when my Mother suffering when my Grandmother died. I also could relate to the fact that her parents wanted to educate her with the knowledge of events that had happened and that were happening, but even with this knowledge they decided that she needed to be sheltered and protected from the real world. The idea of being given the information and then sheltered from it is not something very uncommon for most families, as parents want to protect their child(s) from any kind of danger. As a fellow child that has been in situations where we want to help someone or thing and being unable to or to be stopped by the combined force that are parents, I found this text to be very enlightening about how families are similar no matter what the circumstances.

When my Grandmother died many other people in my family died (all out of just circumstance), my world completely changed. I remember trying and failing to try to help my family feel better but to no avail. So when I read about how Satrapi wanted to take away the pain and suffering of the people around her, I could relate very well. Why she wanted to be a prophet was foreign to me but I can understand that, that was the only way for her to create logic, and reason behind wanting change in her society.

What was not foreign to me was that her parents giving her information about something and then after giving her all the information they shield her from it, “The truth is… that time has past” (Satrapi pg. 19-25). They gave her so much information and then later decide that they are going to protect her “’Tomorrow we are going to demonstrate.’ ‘But we are not allowed’” (Satrapi pg. 38). I thought her parents acted like how my parents acted around the subject of sex; they would talk to me about it and give me books about sex but they didn’t want me to have sex. Although her parents did it out of a different fear (death) to a child I believe that it would feel the same, just their parents wanting to control and manipulate them as they so pleased because they’re the parents and they get to decide.

I think the text that I read was very insightful on what it was like in Iran back in the 1980’s. I also think that this insight will allow me to make connections and see what Iran is today.

Works Cited

Satrapi, Marjane, and Mattias Ripa. Persepolis. New York: Pantheon, 2004. Print.

Individual Narrative on Topics

Iran can be viewed as a culture where women can wear religious clothing and live a normal life. I believe though, that it is an oppressed nation, where women can be killed for what they wear, get treated differently for the same crimes as men, and have little political power. Women have tried to change their situation in Iran but for all they have done not much have gotten changed.

In western culture we do have more equality and some might think that we don’t have any kind of oppression of women, but they are wrong. Women are oppressed even if they don’t think they are; it’s in our popular culture. My younger sister gets Cosmo magazine and every once in a while I’ll take a look at it and every time I can count on that there is at least one article trying to empower women and then the next page is something like the newest diet that will change your life for the better. “[W]omen work outside the home, but they make about 76 cents to a man's dollar and make up the majority of Americans living in poverty”(Valenti). This shows that even though there has been large leaps in equality in the USA, but there is still a lot more we need to accomplish before we can truly have equality.

For us in the western society especially the USA, we have freedom of expression, but not in Iran. “A fifty-five-year-old woman is walking home, her arms full of groceries.  It is hot, and the woman is clearly struggling to hold the groceries and maintain her veil, or chador, at the same time.  Before she can put it back into place, the chador slips back and a single lock of hair appears on the woman's forehead. Immediately, she is arrested and imprisoned. For her "crime" she receives eighty lashes with a whip”(Graves W.I.I. pg.1). As a person I’m appalled at the injustice of the human rights being violated, we should be helping the woman with her bags not imprisoning and the beating her just because a lock of her hair showed. This example is just one of a large growing number of women being beaten and treated unjustly because of an overreaction to an accident or an expression of oneself.

In Iran you would think that logically men would be held to the same laws and regulations as women, but that is incorrect. “Article 114 of Iran’s Civil codes states: When rajm [stoning] is being administered on a man he must be placed in a pit almost down to his waist, and when administered on a woman she must be placed in a pit almost down to her chest. Such barbaric behavior by the regime includes dictating the style, size and the administration of stoning while differentiating between male vs. female victims.  Female victim up to her neck to avoid physical escape, however, even if condemned female victim is able to flee the scene, authorities are obliged to arrest her and execute her by firing squad. As for the male victims, they are buried up to their waist and if able to escape the scene no further punishment awaits them” (http://www.wfafi.org/laws.pdf). I found the laws to be a little hard to read just for the injustices that are put into practice on a daily basis. I would hope that, together women could change the injustices that are befalling them, but they cannot get any hold in government as they have no voice of value.

Men control the entire government in Iran and from what I have read and heard about, women have no way they can get anything done to change their current situation in the law and how they are and can be treated. “On Monday, an Iranian court sentenced a women's rights activist to almost three years in jail and 10 lashes for attending a banned rally, her lawyer said on Tuesday” (http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/07/04/us-iran-khamenei-women-idUSDAH44354320070704).  This just shows how bad it can be, trying to change how people treat you and people like when the government and society is against it. I personally hope that the situation changes but rationally it probably will not happen.

As a culture where old traditions are everything, I think that they need to change, not all the traditions but the ones that make things harder to make unobstructed and uninfluenced decisions where law and politics are involved.

Works Cited

GRAVES, ALISON E. "WOMEN IN IRAN: OBSTACLES TO HUMAN RIGHTS AND POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS." JOURNAL OF GENDER & THE LAW (1996): 57-92. Washington College of Law. Web. 21 Feb. 2013. <http://www.wcl.american.edu/journal/genderlaw/05/graves.pdf>.

"Official Laws against Women in Iran." Wfafi.org. N.p., 2005. Web. 21 Feb. 2013. <http://www.wfafi.org/laws.pdf>.

Tehran. "Don't "play" with Islamic Law, Iranian Women Told." Http://www.reuters.com/. N.p., 4 July 2007. Web. 21 Feb. 2013.

Valenti, Jessica. "For Women in America, Equality Is Still an Illusion." Washington Post. Washington Post, 21 Feb. 2010. Web. 10 Mar. 2013.

I am...

I am Elijah Sierra-Trustman; but everyone calls me Eli. I am an 18-year-old Jewish- Porto Rican, born in Truckee CA, although I was raised mostly in Santa Cruz. I grew up going to alternative schools, where we learned many different things but didn’t learn a lot in the traditional curriculum, for a normal school. Instead of learning how to write papers and do more advanced math we learned how to garden, juggle, and how to fix a real life problems. I learned there how to keep an open mind and a calm head about whatever I might have to encounter in life, be it a challenging class in school or a swarm of bee’s chasing after me. This type of thinking has gotten me through a lot including but not exclusively, having an excruciating time going through a college prep school whilst trying to figure out how to learn better for myself because of my dyslexia and dysgraphia. I learned there that my alternative schooling gave me not the traditional information for school but problem solving and how to think out of the box to look at a problem and figure out a way to solve it. I kept my sanity through the problem solving and because of it; I also happened to learn how my mind worked and how I needed to learn so I could retain the information. Ever since then I have always tried to relate the problem solving modality of thinking into my life, in and out of school.